I just returned from an amazing 2 weeks vacation with my family to Maui. It was incredible on every level. Maui has always been a special place for our family.

I went into this vacation feeling the healthiest ever. And it wasn’t tied to a number on the scale, or the size of my clothes. I just feel like I’m in the best MENTAL relationship with my health, EVER!

And this allowed me to be more present with my family, more active and to go outside my comfort zone which is what vacations are all about.

While I never talk about “my body”, or want to be that trainer who just flaunts her body around to get members, I do deeply believe we all deserve to be proud of our bodies and all that they do for us.

We are so used to judging ourselves, beating ourselves up for not fitting a certain mold, and constantly vowing to “fix” things .

Your body listens to everything your mind believes. Make the story you tell yourself, one you deserve to hear.

There were a few times by the pool or beach that I received a compliment on my body. To be honest, this makes me really uncomfortable. In fact, even writing this out feels weird.  Anyone who knows me knows that is not how I am, but I believe this whole topic deserves to be talked about more.

To me, my physical body is just a nice side effect of all of the hard work and love I give my inside, through food, sleep, exercise and managing my stress.

And as you can see, I am not perfect by any mean – but who made the rules for what is perfect?

To me, my body really does feel great!

My stomach doesn’t have a 6 pack, and muscles aren’t ripping through my skin at every seam. But I am strong, capable, happy, healthy, my family is happy and that is all priceless.

This body of mine has taken me through every step of life and so far we have a 100% success rate together of making it through. 

It has given birth the 2 amazing humans, gone through miscarriages, walked me down the aisle,  it can get up and work it’s tail off day after day, and can bounce back up when I get knocked down by life.

Of course at some point in life we have all  wanted to “look” a certain way and I am no different, but over the past year that stopped being my focus.

And when that focus around my body image left as my primary goal, my health soared to new levels.

When I first got into fitness, I had it in my head that I had to fit a certain mold and look the part.

After my second child was born and things were slower than I had hoped to fall back into place, I had a “let’s get real” moment with myself and one that I often ask my members when they get frustrated with their weight/body image.

And that is: “If that scale never changed, or you never went down a dress size – would you stop exercising, eating well and doing all of these things that make you feel better?”

Without a doubt,  you wouldn’t ever want to give up these things that actually make you FEEL good!

You see, being healthy isn’t just about what you look like on the outside. If you have ever tried “dieting” you know that you can lose weight and feel like crap!

Heck, I was a lot lighter in my earlier years, but I was nowhere near as strong, healthy or happy as I stand here today.

Exercise is my drug of choice for so many reasons.

In one 30 minute workout, you may not notice dramatic changes in your ab’s, but without a doubt you will notice dramatic changes in your mental well being. And that is a super power everyone should be filling up on daily.

Eventually your muscles will start to become defined and that waistline may shrink, but you don’t notice that from one workout to the next.  Having your focus primarily tied to your outward appearance, often times leads to feeling discouraged, not enjoying the journey and eventually giving up, AGAIN & AGAIN!

Nothing and I mean NOTHING looks as good, as feeling GOOD can do for your life.

Since I’ve had my kids, I’ve faced this anxiety that I never used to have. I think it stems from loving 2 humans and my life so much, that I get terrified of losing any of it. It is an anxiety that hits me deep in the stomach and I can’t stand how it makes me feel.

And without fail, exercise has the ability to cure this anxiety each and every time. That alone is enough to get me to show up to my workouts daily.

I am human and would be lying if I said I didn’t care at all what I look like on the outside. But what I deeply believe is – if you care more about how you feel, than how you look – the way you look will come as an added side effect. 

I actually am beginning to love the way I look now, more than at any other time and I am finally wearing that with pride! It started from the inside and radiates from within.

When exercise makes you a better person in EVERY other area of life, you find that you can make time for those workouts and that YOU too matter!

You also find you want to eat better, because food is fuel. And getting those every so important zzz’s becomes a priority, because a clear head the next morning, makes for a much better day.

While health goes far beyond exercise, for me getting that small dose of exercise is the catalyst to improve every other area of health. Like the body, it is all connected together!

Your vibe attracts your tribe and I am one lucky girl to be surrounded by amazing members on our team each and every day.

On the VFit team, we love sharing our newly shed muscle, stamina and overall strength, but I guarantee that our members who find themselves showing up day after day, do so because those 30 minutes they spend on their health, carry over into the other 23 1/2 hours of their day, and you can’t beat that!!

So whatever it may be that is your superpower……that makes you light up….. that makes you proud……that makes you smile from ear to ear….and that can bring out the best out in you from the inside…… go fill up on some of that each and every day. And while you are at it – go enjoy the heck out of life TODAY!

 

I am Off to Maui – Here is My Pre-Vacation Prep! 

Part 1:

Of course you lose weight on restrictive diets, juicing and cleanses – you are restricting your body of crucial calories and you probably will lose weight in the short term.

BUT, they also mess with your metabolism long term. Not to mention it really sucks to be HANGRY!

My biggest gripe with these sort of “programs”, is that I rarely hear people address  your mental well being before/during and after.

So many people already have a negative relationship with food, and placing such restrictions and rules on what/when and how to eat, only further adds fuel to that fire and can often times lead to eating disorders.

This is a HIGHLY debated subject and if you don’t agree with me, that is ok.

I know some people thrive on the structure these programs bring and if you honestly ENJOY them and they improve your well being, keep on keeping on. They just are not for me.

When your body is constantly in fear that you are not eating enough, it is going to stock up when you do decide to eat again . That smart body will hold on to extra calories (aka pudge), in preparation if dare do that again.

I am active with my clients and classes 2-4+ hours/day, plus my own workouts and busy life.

This can feel like an endurance athlete and this Momma needs her fuel to keep firing on all cylinders.

I want to feel FIT & STRONG – not skinny and weak!

Because I LOVE what I do, it’s almost effortless at this point for me to choose to eat real food 90% of the time.

Food is fuel and I LOVE feeling good. I also love eating!

Food and I have a positive relationship these days (just like, anything it takes constant practice and forgiveness to get there).

Since the majority of us eat on a regular basis, multiple times a day, I highly recommend everyone really spend their energy on finding a healthy relationship with what you feed that body. After all, that in the one place you have to live in.

So enough said on this part. I think I stand pretty clear that I do not believe in overhauling your life for a few days/a week/month, over one particular event.

and

Part 2:

Call it getting older and wiser, or just by living with a new relationship around health the past 5+ years – BUT…….. life is SO much more than just looking perfect in a bathing suit , with defined abs.

I work hard day in and day out because I love myself, not because I hate myself. I practice this year round!

What matters the MOST to me about vacation is being present, having a great time because we are healthy and capable of doing whatever sounds fun.

I guarantee my kids will not notice if I have a 6 pack because I starved myself the week up to vacation.

They will however notice if they have a hangry mom!

Life is short my friends. Tomorrow is never promised and it is your duty to enjoy and to take care of the one body you live in, so that you can enjoy the heck out of life.

Going on a vacation completely worried about making a “goal” weight, or fitting in those shorts you bought months ago, swearing you will get into them THIS trip, is NO way to enjoy life.

Each year has 365 days. That gives you about a million chances to make decisions that honor your body both inside and out.

One week or one month before a big trip IS NOT going to change what you do the majority of the year.

I won’t work with clients who are specifically training for a vacation, reunion, event, or wedding.

These are not my people, I just care too dang much to invest in them “short-term”.

What happens after that date they are training for comes and goes?

They more often than not fall back into old habits – having not really appreciated the journey. This self defeating cycle happens again and again.

So there you have it! I didn’t do a darn thing different the week leading up to this vacation! That is my cleanse!

Instead, I am proud to say I am at a point in my life where I take care of myself on a year round basis.

I move my body daily, I view food as fuel, I place sleep as a non negotiable (best as I can with little ones), I have a grateful heart, a life I have worked hard to create, am surrounded by amazing people everyday, AND that is all that I need!

I am strong, healthy, happy and have an amazing family that I am going to go enjoy the heck out of for the next few weeks! I tuly hope everyone else can do the same in whatever way feeds your soul! Aloha!!”

 

Getting Outside My Own Comfort Zone

I’ll be the first to admit, I can catch myself at times,not practicing what I preach. One of the sayings you will hear a lot in the VFit Studio is “Change happens outside your comfort zone!”.  When it comes to my workouts and fitness, I have NO problem with this. When it comes to some other area’s in life, I tend to fall into a routine of complacency all too much.

I am a mom of 2 little ones. They take up so much of my world right now. My business is built around my life as a busy mom and in all honestly, I sometimes feel lost when I  do things without them (although this is getting better as they get bigger!).

With young kids, life tends to have more structure. We have certain times and days we do things. Kids thrive on structure. And it works 95% of the time. But that also is where a lot of us tend to lose the “me” within.

Which brings me to my blog this week about getting outside my own comfort zone!

At the VFit Studio, we work with an INCREDIBLE photographer, Minaret Photo. Brandon’s zone of genius is in outdoor photos, but if you have seen the indoor photo’s he has done for us, he is just amazing all together.

I have followed his photography for a while now and when a dear friend hooked us up to work together, I had to pinch myself.

We’ve done 2 indoor sessions and they were very much IN my zone of comfort. Kids, chaos, weights, yoga mats, computers and everything that is my life and the VFit Studio.

But Brandon kept telling me that he really wanted to take some time to get outside for a session.

What? No kids, no pets? What does my business have to do with this?

Plus, if you have ever followed his work, it’s amazing! Like jaw dropping amazing!

Outside of wedding season, Brandon travels the world taking the most incredible shots, of the most beautiful and fit woman.

Doing poses and stunts I would need a hospital team to unwind me out of.

But I said “Yes! Let’s do this!”

And then I went on to think of every reason why I didn’t want to do it. Our minds have a way of trying to keep us from exploring that next level of greatness.

I mean it’s just a photo shoot, what really is there to be so scared about! But I kept putting weird pressure on myself.

I kept thinking……I wasn’t strong enough, wouldn’t look as amazing as his other subjects, what would I wear?

So I asked fellow trainer Steph to join me! I know the power of accountability and it works in every area of life.

We showed up to this incredible location and let loose. We challenged ourselves with poses we had never tried. Some we pulled off with perfect 10’s and some were complete fails.

We laughed, we got muddy, we fell over, we scraped our hands on the asphalt, we changed outfits in the middle of nowhere, posed in the middle of the road looking for traffic and we had a BLAST!!!

I left that photo shoot with a new sense of energy and strength that I hadn’t experienced in a long time.

It wasn’t about my business or my kids for a few hours. It was about having fun and being STRONG!

I felt so strong by the end, so proud and there was ZERO comparison in my mind against any of those other photos I used to look at in jaw dropping awe!

Our pictures are going to look different than that model in Costa Rica or that Yogi in Nicaragua, but I am now 100% ok with that!

Brandon assured us this from the beginning – that this was to have fun and get creative and I just had to trust in getting outside my comfort zone.

While this is just a random story of a fitness trainer taking more pictures, it symbolizes a lot more to me.

I had been settling into to much of a routine as a mom, business owner, wife and person. I wasn’t getting outside of my comfort zone enough and lighting my own fire with those butterflies you get doing something new and scary.

So today I challenge you to do something that makes the hair on your arms stand up. That scares you a little, that takes you out of your comfort zone.

In the few hours we spent yesterday getting creative, exploring the outdoors and being STRONG, a little piece of me lit back up again in a new way! And it felt amazing.

I am blessed for an incredible and supportive husband that I don’t give enough credit, who brought the kids to watch, but it wasn’t about them for once!

It really is true, that t great things happen outside of your comfort zones.

Having kids, being a wife, running a business – it all was outside of my comfort zone at one point. But then things have a way of becoming the new norm and you must continue to push yourself into new adventures of the unknown!

BIG shout out to Brandon of Minaret Photo, Steph of VFit, my husband, kids and dog.

 

I 100% believe that there is a strong correlation between people who spend time making their health a priority and people who are successful in life. And when I say successful, this is not tied to how much money you make. I measure success by ones ability to accomplish ANY goal they set out to do.

Success is falling 99 times and getting  up 100 times!

Hear me out……Taking time for your own health and happiness is a BIG deal! It is not easy by any means.

Most of us are so tied up in our overly scheduled life, we tend to get caught up spending our days taking care of everything and everyone else, leaving our own well being on the back burner. Just the thought of taking care of YOU sends you into a guilt induced panic, and it becomes easier not to do anything than to fill your own cup up.

I’ve had several members quit our studio after a strong start telling me, “They just no longer can fit 30 minutes in. They don’t have it all together like I do”. Their kids won’t let them workout, they are too tired in the morning, evenings are too frantic.

I get busy, I do! But I also know when something matters enough, you WILL find that time. This goes for anything in life.

Believe me, I have no special superpowers that everyone else doesn’t have access to.

Exercise is my super power! I shout this from the mountaintops daily and fill with joy when others feel the same.

Everyone “knows” the health benefits you gain from a good sweat sesh or weight training circuit. Improved blood pressure, protection of your bones, decreased risk of many deadly diseases, and on and on. But those reasons alone aren’t enough for most to give you the willpower to show up for the long haul.

Exercise (or any self care for that matter) is SO powerful because it teaches you DISCIPLINE…….. It teaches you self love, consistency, how to work hard, how to pick yourself up when you get knocked over and it shows you how to SHOW UP, even on the days you don’t feel like it.

And ALL of those things are needed to be successful in every other of life.

Yes, I love to exercise – I have built my dream business around it and feel blessed to share this passion on a daily basis. But do I feel like showing up to my workouts 100% of the time? Of course not, I am human.

But I do end up showing up 99% of the time. Because I have made that commitment to ME (and surrounding yourself with the best team doesn’t hurt!).  And without a shadow of a doubt, I know that I am a better person in every other area of my life when my health is a priority.

So when all the excuses start to pile in my brain on why I can’t fit in my workout, I get real with myself and decide if those are true reasons or excuses.

9 out of 10 times the reasons I can’t show up are just excuses, so  I get over my pity party and SHOW UP.

Because when that workout is done, I feel proud, I feel STRONG, I feel accomplished and I am happier the other 23 1/2 hours of the day because of those 30 minutes I spent on ME!  I would miss out on all of that greatness if I didn’t show up and that alone has conditioned me to get past my excuses and just show up!

For you , your self care may not be exercise. That is ok. Exercise is just my “super power”, so plug anything in that lights you up and gives you that discipline of showing up and staying the course.  EVEN.ON.THE.DAYS.YOU.DON’T.FEEL.LIKE.IT.

If you don’t feel like doing your workouts EVERY DAY, or you hate your job so much that it makes you miserable – make a change! Stop thinking the world owes you an easy way out. It never has and it never will. Nothing feels better than an accomplishment, after putting the HARD WORK in!

Last week I committed to writing a weekly blog. Guess what? Today I didn’t “feel” like writing that blog.

But sure enough, I sat down, I took fingers to keyboard and I came up with a darn good topic I am so passionate about. It is from that showing up to my workouts, that transfers into this commitment and consistency in other areas of life.

The discipline I have learned through exercise has transferred into raising my family, my relationship with my husband,  into starting a business from SCRATCH, into picking myself up and putting myself back together after a few miscarriages, to giving birth, pursing further education, and on and on and on!

Just like the quote above says, “When you feel like quitting, just remember who is watching.”

You are either going to agree with me on this subject or think I am completely crazy. I am willing to bet that most on my VFit team will agree 100% and that is why they chose our team to show up to each day.

You tend to surround yourself with people like you, and with our crew it happens to be a tribe of amazing and hard working people from EVERY walk of life.

If you are ready to SHOW UP, push yourself and put in the hard work day in and day out without sacrificing any extra precious time, join our team for $59/month. The 30 minutes a day your spend with our TEAM will change the other 23 1/2 hours of your life in the best possible way.